Shakin All Over

Lenna took the newspaper article from Rome. After reading them twice she saw a pattern every attack was done by someone who was at the first attack.

“Rome did you see that everyone was at the first attack? Wait! What we can’t get off the island or contact the mainland?” Lenna looked up from the newspapers.

“What about our supplies? We can’t hunt this without our things. Ohmygod my books I left them in the car.” A sudden shock appeared on her face.

"They are in a car chica, not a tent. Relax. You were saying about the attacks?" Rome smiled at her.

Lenna still thought about her book when suddenly she saw a word carved in the side of the director's desk. Croatoan

"Sheriff was there always just one person acting weird at the time?"

"Yes Miss. At least as I know."

Lenna turned around to Rome.

"I think it started with this girl. Everyone else was there, maybe it is like a disease or something or a demon that jumps from one victim to the next. It could also be a ghost possession. I wish you hadn't thrown the anti-possession charm away. It would have kept you safe."

Georgie had quite a hard time listening to Elenna who tried to find an explanation for what was going on. All Georgie could think of was the fact that they were stuck on an island. A freaking creepy island, to be precise. She got her cell phone out to check if it was working, but of course, there was no connection.

“You’re kidding me!” She wasn’t entirely sure with whom she was speaking, she just looked in the direction of the health officer as if it was all her fault. “What is this? Stephen King’s Storm of the Century? Do something!”Georgie knew she tended to get a little - or very – bossy when something went wrong, probably to hide her nervousness.

The blonde health officer looked rather offended. “I’m sorry, Miss, but I can’t control the weather.”

“Well, that is just too bad, isn’t it?” Georgie didn’t intend to sound pissed, but she did. “This place is unbelievable. It’s disorganized, there are absolutely no ways to get out in case of an emergency--as soon as I’m off this ridiculous island I’ll make sure this place will be shut down. I will get a couple of lawyers and –“

“Georgie!” Elenna grabbed her friend’s arm. “Relax, okay? It’s not her fault that we can’t contact the mainland.”

“I know…” Georgie sighed. This was a nightmare. And if Elenna really had seen ghosts earlier, it could only get worse.

"Go collect anyone else who didn't make it on the first ferry," the health and safety chick--Maria, that was her name, wasn't it?--piped up. "Okay, so you all wait here. I'll swing back by to pick you up before I take everyone to the bunker. There's food and shelter there, while we wait out the storm. All right? Everyone just sit tight."

The room was quiet for about two seconds before it exploded into everyone talking at once.

"Thank God, I thought she'd never leave--"

"What are we going to do?"

"What are we even hunting?"

"Ghosts or demon possession?"

"Shh, the sheriff's still awake--"

"Okay, okay, okay!" Rome tried again, this time much louder to get everyone's attention. "Let's deal with this one problem at a time! I'm sorry, Sheriff, but this is just going to sound completely weird, but we don't have time for the 'the truth is out there' speech, so just go with it."

"Actually, I--"

"So the question I want to start out with is who's seen a ghost?"

Elenna raised her hand. Rome also, sheepishly, raised his hand. "In my defense, I see a lot of things, and I'm not sure what's real, so let's just start with that. My ghost was at the bar on the mainland, though, so dunno if it's related. He--it was he, and he was doing his history reenactment thing, was dressed all colonial like the guys here--hell, might have been real colonial for all I know. But I only got a glimpse. Chica, what's your story?"

Lenna looked at Rome. “My ghost was a chick, just like yours she was dressed like all the actors here, she looked sad at a group of kids passing her.”

Lenna was looking into the distance, working through each fact they had. “It looks like a disease, even though it was always just one person infected, I’m not sure if this is the doing of a ghost or a demon. There is nothing mentioned of black smoke or cold spots, I think it spreads differently, maybe… what about a cursed object maybe the water is cursed and everyone who ate something on the island is infected. Also Richard, you mentioned the first settles or Roanoke Island, I remember that I learned in school all they left behind was one word Croatoan, and I don’t wanna freak you out but have a look at the director’s desk.”

On the side was the word Croatoan carved. “Maybe you weren’t that wrong Richard. Maybe it happens again. We should find salt and iron against the ghosts. I bet there is somewhere a storage of road salt.”

Lenna took a pen from the desk and drew the symbol of fire on her left wrist, when she suddenly looked up. “I once read of a ghost sickness, I can’t get it all together but ghosts can make people sick. Maybe that’s what is happening here?”

Richard sat down at the desk, his hand tapping impatiently over the ‘Croatoan’ carving.

“Ghost sickness is a complete misnaming. It’s not a sickness in any sense. Unless the ghost died of a disease.” His eye’s moved from the carving to the rest of the group. For a moment they rested on the sheriff and both shared a look of hatred. Almost too quick to be seen.

“Ghost ‘sickness’ is when the ghost forces their victims to relive their death, often in a slow drawn out fashion. That isn’t the case here, the victims aren’t dying. Well, some of them. Death by bullets doesn’t count. I’ve seen ghost’s inspire rage or possess people, but nothing like this, and nothing… contagious.” Once again his hand started tapping on the desk.

“But we still have ghosts, and we still have ‘Croatoan’, and from the ghosts appearance they must be linked. So Croatoan could have something to do with why they disappeared and what is happening now. So what is Croatoan? What on Earth… sorry, of course, it’s probably not ‘on Earth’.”

Georgie stood quietly in a corner while listening to Richard. He evidently knew a lot about ghosts… She had no idea what the word ‘Croatoan’ meant, but for some reason it made her uncomfortable. She looked at the carving on the desk, wondering who or what carved it in. It seemed that the storm outside wasn’t just a sudden change of weather, the events all seemed to be linked to each other, and everything pointed towards this one strange word.

Great, now it’s getting even better…she thought when she heard thunder outside. This really was like a stupid horror movie. A movie she really didn’t want to be a part of. Hopefully everybody who got on the first ferry was safe, but they didn’t know if there were still people on the island. Georgie took the newspaper article that Elenna had looked through earlier, and frowned as her eyes wandered over the article about the little girl that had injured some of the park workers. She didn’t know if it was the change of weather, the tension or simply the fact that they were stuck on an island, possibly surrounded by vengeful spirits, but she slowly started to feel a bit strange, almost dizzy. She ignored it though, there were more important things to focus on at the moment.

Morrigan reached out and grabbed Georgie's arm, noticing that she'd swayed a little and then acted like nothing had happened.

"Are you okay?" she asked. "You look a little sick?"

Georgie shook her head. "Fine. There are bigger fish to fry."

"You don't look so good. Do you need an asprin or something?" Mor fished in her purse and pulled out a bottle.

"No, really." Georgie turned back to the article about the girl.

"Georgie, I know that ghost business can get a bit out of control. REally, are you sure you're okay?"

Georgie had shut her out. Morrigan retreated back to the corner of the room, unsure what good she would be helping the others prepare a game plan. She fingered the vial of holy water and the salt bullets in her pocket, feeling very much sure that Georgie was hiding something.

"Guys," she said with a start. "I think I just saw something outside."

Richard stopped talking and everyone turned toward the window.

"There's nothing there," Rome said with a shrug. "Was it another one of Lenna's ghosts?"

"Maybe?" Morrigan said with a start. "It was gone too fast. Maybe I should go check it out?"

"Not alone," Rome said automatically. "You and me can go if you like, though," he added, pulling his sawed-off out of his coat to load it. Just as they were headed out the door, however, they were met by Miss Perkypants Jones.

"Oh!" she smiled sweetly, as Rome quickly put his shotgun behind his back. "Excellent, I'm just rounding up everyone who's left so we can get comfy down in the storm bunker. There is a generator, and we do have a PS3 down there!"

God, nothing could rain on this woman's parade, could it?

"Read my mind," Rome said, forcing a fake grin and slipping the shotgun into the back of his jeans.

"Could I ask a few of you gentlemen to help the good Sheriff here? It's not far, but--"

"I'm all right, little missy."

"Of course you are, Sheriff. It is only for my own job security that I must insist we do everything by the book during our hopefully brief sojourn here."

"I'll help," Callum offered, which Rome felt like a little bitch for not offering, too, so he slipped himself under the Sheriff's other arm. Coats were buttoned, hoods pulled up, and together the group moved outside, where the wind and snow had picked up. It was frankly dreadful. Rome had no inclination of trying to sneak off with Morrigan to chase what was probably a deer or something.

When they made it to the bunker, Rome's heart sank, in spite of finally being warm again. The place itself was fine: there were rows of beds, shelves with food, books, games, lights, a few toilets, all underground. There was also, Rome made sure to note, a gun case in the corner, locked and very dusty, but better than nothing. The problem was there were at least twenty people here, not counting his group, the Sheriff and Maria. Most of them looked like park staff (a few were in some degree of costume), but there were a few who looked like visitors. There were also a few kids.

Super.

Once they got the Sheriff settled, Rome turned to his group. "Okay, we need to find an out of the way to talk," he whispered, looking everyone over. Georgie looked a little pale, so he reached out to her to squeeze her hand, saying, "You okay, G?"

But he didn't quite get the words out, as contact with her skin triggered a spike of pain between his eyes and he went down like he'd been shot as--

Snowy woodlands he recognized only too well.

With a bloodcurdling shriek Georgie knocked him back, flicked open her pink folding knife, and jumped on top of him. He tried to hold her back away from him, but she bore down on him with superhuman strength.

"We have to shoot her!"

"Shoot her!"

The wildness in her eyes terrified him. It was all he could focus on. And then there was a sharp stab of pain in his chest--

Rome was back, covered in sweat, with people crowded around staring at him. He blinked a few times, trying to clear his vision, trying to speak, holding his head to keep it from falling apart. After a moment, all he could manage was,

Georgie ran. She ran without even knowing where to go. The moment everyone was focused on Rome she just turned around and stormed out of the bunker like something was chasing her. It was very strange, because just a few seconds ago she had felt so weak that she could hardly stand, but now she ran faster than she ever ran before. But she didn’t even want to run. She didn’t know why she was running in the first place. It was like she couldn’t control her own body. Was she possessed? She didn’t feel like herself anymore. Actually, she felt nothing. As if something had taken her soul and left an empty vessel behind. The wind seemed to get stronger with every second, and there was still thunder over her head, but that didn’t keep her from running right into something that appeared to be a forest. She wanted to stop, but she couldn’t. She was not able to think anymore. No, she did think. But those vicious, horrible thoughts were not hers. Or was she not herself?

"I...a dream. And then again, when I touched her. That she...freaked out, went ballistic, was trying to kill me, and people were screaming that we had to shoot her. And--I think, I don't know, but, it seemed like, anyway, that she acted just like the other..." he licked his lips, "the other crazies, or whatever we wanna call them, whatever's happening to these people."

Suddenly he sat upright, looking around. "We have to figure out what's happening here. We have to find Georgie!"

“”I’ll be fine.” Lenna just hoped that for once Rome’s vision was wrong.

“No I’m coming with you.” Lenna rolled her eyes, but helped him up.

“Fine. Where did it happen? That’s probably where we will find her. We can think of the way what to do with her.” Lenna suddenly looked at the Sheriff. “Sheriff do you have any tranquilizer darts?”

“No why should we have them?”

“Never mind. Come on Rome let’s go.”

She pulled her jacket tight around her and braced herself to go outside into the storm. “We better find Georgie and on the way to make sure she doesn’t hurt anyone. She would kill us if the breaks a finger nail.”

“Yeah, I think her nails will be the least problem.”

It was so windy outside that Lenna had to hold on to Rome so that she didn’t blow away. It took them a long time to get to the small woods, he had seen in his vision.

Georgie was still in the forest, though she wasn’t running anymore. She had no idea where she was, but there was one thing she knew; she needed to stay away from people, because something inside her wanted to hurt them. Her thoughts scared her, but she couldn’t get rid of them. Something was happening to her and she couldn’t stop it. Georgie started to feel dizzy again. Which was good, she thought, because that showed she was still human. But the way she had run to the forest, so unnaturally fast, was not human at all. One part of her wanted help, but unfortunately there was another, much bigger part of her that wanted bad things to happen, and it seemed like that part of her was about to win. It grew stronger with every minute. It was like a fight inside of her, she fought against herself or whatever it was that produced all those cruel thoughts, but she wasn’t strong enough. Whatever it was she was fighting against, it was almost inhumanly strong. Georgie fell down in the snow. She didn’t even feel the cold. She felt nothing. She tried to remember things, places, people…and she couldn’t. She heard voices somewhere in the distance, but she didn’t move. Dreadful, vicious thoughts were running through her head as the voices came closer.

“G!”, someone called.

“Oh God, what’s wrong with her?”, she heard another voice.

“Hey G…” She felt someone touching her. “Her skin is ice cold.”

“Is she breathing?”

“Yes, but-“

Suddenly Georgie felt an immense strength inside of her, she jumped up and got out her knife.

The wooded clearing was one he recognized, despite never having been here before in his life. The little things gave it away: an orange bucket overturned and showing, one tree that was just a stump, red flags marking something tied to a few trees. The buildings surrounding them. Exactly from his vision.

The blood in the snow. Exactly from his vision.

A trail, leading to a pair of Chanel boots, exactly like his vision. "G!" he cried out, and, because of the vision, gave him pause for only half a second before he rushed forward, making sure he got there before Elenna.

He was just about to scoop her into his arms when a violent shove came out of nowhere.

Rome recognized her eyes: the wildness, the malice, the rage. Those were in his vision, too.

But because of everything from his vision coming true, he was ready for the attack--sort of--at least it didn't catch him by surprise and he rolled with it, ending in a crouch so that when she lunged for him, he was able to toss her past him into a pile of snow.

"Lennie, run!" he cried, shoving her forward ahead of him. Together they ran-trudged through the snow, and Georgie was running after them.

By the time he’d broken his reverie, realised what had happened, and ran to the door, Rome and Elenna were already sprinting out after Georgie. Considering what could be out there, he’d better go after them. He wasn’t going to lose the only link he had to his true family.

“Sherriff, I need to borrow your gun.”

“Like hell am I going to give it to you,” he spat. Richard locked eyes with him.

“Listen, you and me may have some unfinished business, but for now we’re hunting the same thing,” Richard hissed back, hoping no one was close enough to hear. “Plus, thanks to the state you’re in, I’ve already got it!” Waving the gun in slight mockery, Richard called to Callum to follow him. Another man joined them, he looked like he could handle himself, and they’d lost enough time so Richard wasn’t about to argue.

With the wind it was almost impossible to follow the tracks, thankfully, or not, there were inhuman sounding screams being carried by the wind. Ahead he caught sight of Rome and Elenna, each supporting the other as they tried to run, chased by… Georgie. She gave another shriek and leapt at the two, narrowly missing. As she picked herself up Rome and Elenna were able to put some critical distance between them and her.

“We have to shoot her,” exclaimed the man accompanying Richard and Callum. He already had a rifle up and was pointing it. Richard slammed it down.

“You are not going to SHOOT HER!” After suddenly finding out he had an extended family there was no way in Erebus that he was going to be responsible for her death.

“Rome, Elenna, over here!” Richard called out. The two of them change direction towards them, but they stumbled on something under the snow. Richard sprinted towards them as Georgie also closed the gap.

Richard jumped out and grabbed her arm as the knife flashed down, but it was like trying to stop a train in motion. At least it deflect some of the force of the blow, it was no longer a fatal strike. For his trouble Richard received a fist in his face. Coming from Georgie it was the last thing he’d expected, and the unblocked blow sent him sprawling on the snow.

Georgie was just about to pounce on Richard when she suddenly hesitated. Something inside her stopped her from hurting him. Elenna and Rome held their breath, not knowing what was going on and how they could approach her. She just stood there, looking almost petrified.

“Georgie?”, Richard asked carefully after he noticed that some human features returned to her face.

She still didn’t move. She just looked at him, almost lost.

Suddenly she felt a sharp pain in her arm. Someone had just tried to shoot her, but luckily for her the bullet only grazed her arm. Everyone looked at the other guy who had followed Richard and Callum. He had his rifle pointing at Georgie.

“I told you not to shoot at her, you jerk!”, Richard yelled at him.

Georgie took advantage of the situation, turned around and sprinted away in an abnormal speed.

Lenna looked at the running Georgie, there was no way they would catch her now. “Rome you okay? Georgie got you.”

“Yeah it’s just a scratch.”

“Great so our pink monster turned into a real monster, even though I think there is still some Georgie in there. We should go back, see what the others do.”

Lenna suddenly looked at Rome. “You know what is weird? Yes Richard stopped her but looked where the cut is, it wouldn't have killed you. And Georgie knows how to kill someone with a knife. What if she didn’t want to kill you but hurt you?”

Lenna started to feel better; she was finally doing her job, thinking.

“What if… this sounds more than crazy but what if Croatoan is not a monster per se, but… a disease? Maybe the first colonists got infected by a supernatural disease?” The young girl chuckled, this idea sounded even in her ears crazy.

Rome was holding a gloved hand over the cut on his forearm, staring after Georgie. He was annoyed more than anything. That yahoo with the rifle was going the riot act read to him with his fist if Rome didn't calm down. He appeared not to be looking at Elenna, but he nodded when she said it.

"Well I sure as hell hope not!" He paused, going over the fight in his head. "She wasn't...I mean, okay, look, she fought it, right? It was a struggle, for her. The other guy, he kept fighting even after being shot like nine times. But Georgie ran. Shit, we should go after her..." There were too many things to worry about right now. "And you," he added with a snarl, drawing his Desert Eagle and pointing it at the man with the rifle, "have lost your gun privileges for shooting my girlfriend. Drop it, asshole."

To his credit, the man (probably one of the workers here) dropped the gun.

"Rome," Elenna tugged at his coat. Her tone sounded worried, warning.

"Grab that gun," he told Callum.

"Rooooome!"

"What?"

"So if Georgie got bled on by the Park Owner today when he lost it...then, um...someone else did to."

Rome froze with a chill that had nothing to do with the weather.

"Holy mother of--"

As one, he, Lenna, Richard and Callum, followed closely by the confused park worker, turned and sprinted back to the bunker.

"Everyone just put the guns down," Morrigan shouted, pulling out her gun just to be safe. "No one needs to get shot here."

It was then that she saw the cut on Rome's arm and everyone start running toward her. "What's going on guys? What happened?" She'd somehow gotten left behind again, and just when the action had picked up.

She knew that suddenly, the least of their worries were the ghosts found meandering on the streets, but the fact that Croatoan was alive and kicking right there in front of her. "Georgie's infected?"

"Yeah," Rome said with a grimace. "So are some other people."

She looked at the cut on his arm and over at Lenna, the worry clear. "Rome, about you..."

Rome was about to reply to Morrigan when the Sheriff started to attack the few people in the bunker. He jumped with unnatural speed at a tough looking civilian who suddenly looked as if he had wet his pants. Rome pushed Lenna out of his reach.

I didn’t realize they are that close…

“Lenna what the hell wake up!” Rome yelled at her.

But for once Rome couldn’t protect her, the Sheriff cut her arm and pulled her closer to him, with his bloody hand. For a moment she was too shocked to move, but then she ducked and pulled the Sheriff with her down, he fell over her and landed closer to the fighting hunters. She was worried about her the cut and blood on her arm than that she could worry about the Sheriff of whom hopefully the other took care of.

The sheriff rolled away from Elenna, and his eye’s turned towards the rest of the group. They landed on Richard and focused solely on him. A spilt second later he jumped towards Richard, arms outstretched. Richard tried to leap out the way, but was caught by the sheriff and toppled. Using his advantage the sheriff bore down on him but Richard kicked him squarely in the face. It didn’t seem to hurt him, just disorientate him.

But it was enough for Richard to sling off his tweed jacket and wrap it round the sheriff’s head. Mindful of what Elenna had suspected, about blood contact, Richard was hesitant about using a knife. Instead he just pounded on the covered head, as the two of them went crashing across the bunker floor. The sheriff suddenly tore free, sending Richard crashing through a wooden chair. He fumbled for something to use as a weapon, grasping on of the wooden legs.

“Servant of Hades,” the sheriff screamed in a varying pitch that was painful on the ears, “I should have put you down when I had the chance.” The sheriff charged again, but this time Richard was ready. As he neared Richard spun out of the way, bringing the chair leg crashing down on the back of the sheriff’s head. He stumbled, toppled, and collapsed, cracking the front of his head on the edge of one of the beds as he did so. He lay still on the floor, and there was an uneasy silence.

The room was quiet for a few seconds. How had things gone so badly in such a short time?

The only good news, apparently, was that the Sheriff had killed the annoyingly perky blonde (yeah, yeah, too soon, whatever). So Rome took charge.

"Um. Okay. Everyone--remain calm."

Rome had some cataloging to do. It was a long list of how much their lives sucked right now.

"This man was very sick, so I need everyone to step away from the body for me, okay? In fact, it would probably be safer if everyone waited on that side of the room."

They were looking for someone to take charge, so no one put up a fight. Small favors.

"Thank you," he said. "Anyone with injuries, let's go into this office here and look after those, okay?"

Lenna was bleeding. Shit. Had the Sheriff bled on her? The look of terror in her eyes was enough to confirm that. Double shit.

Rome lowered his voice as the hunters huddled around him. "Okay, so this--disease, is that what we're calling it? This is Croatoan?"

Richard shrugged. "Looks like it."

"Okay, we'll go with that. So we need to get these bodies out of here, and we've got to keep an eye on who's infected until we can figure out a cure. Morrigan, that's you and me, okay? We start triage. Chica, you hit the books. I know we're kinda limited right now, but let me know if you can dig up some, I dunno, some healing spells, or some intel at least." He forced a smile at her, touching her cheek to let her know it would be all right.

"Second problem, Georgie is running around out there being all crazy and probably freezing to death. So Richard, Callum, I'm sending you after that. Take plenty of rock salt and try and figure out what the hell these ghosts are up to. Yeah?"

Richard and Callum nodded. "Okay, people, happy hunting." Rome clapped his hands and the circle broke. Damn, he should have been captain of the football team in another life. Or a frakking politician.

Rome looked at the room. Three dead bodies: Sheriff, Maria, and some other civvie.

He pointed at two men. One of them was the guy he'd taken the rifle from before, and the other looked like a huge lob of grease. "You two, can you give us a hand here? Let's get these bodies out into the snow, okay? Gloves and masks on the table, there. Thank you..."

Next problem.

Two more people injured: a grad-student-type with beard and glasses, and an older woman. Not bad injuries, but enough, probably. They waited patiently in the office, where Elenna and Morrigan hesitated outside the door.

He stepped over to them. "Morrigan, it's okay, honey. You and me, we're okay, we've got this, we've got to help these people, yeah? Can I count on you?" Morrigan nodded and stepped inside, armed with a first aid kit. Rome turned to Elenna. "Chica, baby? You okay? Did he get you?"

After Georgie had been running for a while she spotted a small wooden shack outside the forest. Her shoulder was still bleeding from the bullet but she didn’t pay attention to it. She was more occupied fighting herself or whatever was inside of her, and she felt she was losing. She had not recognized Rome and Elenna, and on top of that attacked them. She had to get away from people. She knew she was a danger to others, and she knew that she was capable of everything right now. At least she felt more human than she did earlier. But it didn’t last. After Georgie entered the shack and sat down on the floor she heard a rustling in the other corner of the little building. Normally it would have been too dark for any normal person to see what was there, but she suddenly had the ability to see perfectly in the darkness, like an owl watching its prey. There was a girl about sixteen, trying to hide behind a wheelbarrow. Again, Georgie felt how she lost anything human left of her, got her knife out, jumped up and pushed the wheelbarrow aside. This time nobody would interrupt her.

Lenna wanted to laugh, tell him that was fine, but she couldn’t. She shook her head, putting pressure on the cut of her arm to stop the bleeding. “Romeo, I… I think this is not all my blood.”

She closed her eyes and tried very hard not to freak out. “Let’ me see.” Rome took her left arm and had a closer look at the cut. “It is not very deep.”

“I know, but all the blood. Rome I don’t wanna end up like Georgie or the Sheriff or all the other crazies.”

“You won’t because you will find a cure for this and then we find G. Okay?”

Lenna nodded. “Okay. Go on help the others I’m gonna be fine. I have to try to and find as much information I can.” She was wrapping a bandage around her arm to stop the bleeding. Just before Rome went to help the others she held him back. “Rome? When there is no cure, then…”

“You find it!” Rome didn’t even want to think about what happened in the worst case.

Stepping outside, Richard regretted throwing his jacket away. It was damn cold. So the best thing to do was to push on quickly.

“First order of business, we need to find all the salt we can. With luck they have some kind of storage bins for the stuff on the island. A shame none of the staff a here to tell us where the damn bins are.”

“Why salt?” asked Callum.

“Of course, sorry. You haven’t done any ghost hunting before have you? Best we go over the basics quickly.” Richard began telling Callum what he could over the wind. About using salt against them, about salting and burning the bodies, as well as a few tips in combating them.

“And the most important thing, almost all ghosts want something. Something strong enough to keep them behind. If you find out what that is, you can use it against them. Sometimes it can give you another way to banish them.”

“Maybe not when they start off. But sooner or later the call of the afterlife drives them mad. Then they won’t be so friendly.” Richards voice held a twinge of sadness to it.

It seemed to Callum that Richard knew just a bit too much about ghosts. But before he could say for think anything else, a scream cut through the night. Both men began running towards the sound. Or as close to running as they could in the snow.

She had just cut deep into the girl’s arm who started to cry hysterically, when Georgie felt a strong force pushing her against the wooden wall. She was up on her feet in no time and saw the blurred shape of a woman in a strange dress. The girl was ducking in the corner, unable to make any sound at the sight of the pale figure that had suddenly appeared in front of her. Georgie picked up her knife and drew closer to the girl, but the ghost threw her back again, giving the girl the chance to escape. She jumped up, wrenched open the door and ran outside. Georgie wanted to follow her, but the woman put her hands around her throat, lifted her up and threw her across the room until she hit the wall and fell to the ground. This time Georgie didn’t get up again, she was losing her unnatural strength. Every inch of her body began to hurt. Finally. She knew that feeling physical pain was a sign for being human, and she felt more human than she did earlier. She slowly started to faint. She saw the ghost appearing right in front of her, but at the same moment she lost consciousness.